Hultgren Goes After Obsolete Regulations

A press release from Congressman Randy Hultgren:

Rep. Hultgren, Sen. Blunt Introduce Legislation to “Sunset” Outdated and Obsolete Regulations

Washington, DC – U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren (IL-14) today reintroduced his legislation, the Regulatory Review and Sunset Act of 2015, which calls for establishing a process by which federal agencies can “sunset” obsolete, duplicative and conflicting regulations that weigh on American businesses and families.

Last Congress, provisions of Rep. Hultgren’s original bill H.R. 309, the Regulatory Sunset and Review Act, were incorporated into H.R. 4874, the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act of 2014, at the specific request of the House Judiciary Committee. Thursday, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) joined in introducing Senate counterpart legislation, also called the Regulatory Review and Sunset Act.

Congressman Randy Hultgren and unopposed Judicial Cook County Candidate John Curry conversed at the Pro-Life Pig Roast.

Congressman Randy Hultgren and unopposed Judicial Cook County Candidate John Curry conversed at the Pro-Life Pig Roast.

“For too long, hardworking Americans have suffered the collateral damage of higher prices, lower wages, and fewer jobs as a result of excessive and outdated regulation. The regulatory burden weakens the confidence of the business community in Illinois and nationwide, resulting in a reluctance to hire workers and invest. This inefficient and ineffective regulatory regime spans across the federal government, and our economy suffers,” said Rep. Hultgren.

“Families in my district are finding their incomes are not keeping up with rising prices for daily necessities. The last thing they need is more costly burdens on their budget. These bills will push federal agencies to analyze the rules on the books and put those that are obsolete, duplicative and conflicting on a path to elimination. I thank Sen. Blunt for introducing similar legislation in the Senate to cut down on unnecessary and costly regulations, and I hope to see action on both bills soon.”

“Every day, I hear from Missouri families, farmers, and small businesses who say one of the biggest barriers to job creation and economic growth is the extreme regulatory burden,” said Sen. Blunt. “Americans need more economic certainty, and it’s long past time for Congress to take a hard look at regulations that have become millstones around the necks of job creators. That’s why I’ve introduced this important bill that would create an orderly process to regularly review major rules and ease unnecessary regulatory burdens so that American job creators can get back to hiring, expanding, growing, and investing.”

Federal regulations cost American manufacturers, small businesses, workers and families alike:

  • Federal regulations impose an estimated burden of $1.86 trillion on our economy—more than the GDPs of Canada or Australia. That’s roughly $15,000 per U.S. household—23 percent of the average household income of $65,596. This exceeds every item in the household budget except housing – more than health care, food, transportation, entertainment, apparel, services and savings.
  • Complying with federal regulations costs American small businesses nearly $12,000 per employee annually, and $19,500 each for manufacturers.
  • At present there are more than 3,400 proposed federal rules pending approval, and federal regulators are rolling out new rules at a startling pace: last year, federal agencies finalized more than 10 new regulations a day – for a total of 3,759 new regulations in 2014.

To address the regulatory burden, the Regulatory Review and Sunset Act:

  • Establishes a bipartisan commission to review existing federal regulations and identify those that should be “sunsetted” to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens.
  • Prioritizes for review regulations that are major rules (those with an economic impact of $100 million or more), as well as those that have been in effect more than 15 years and impose disproportionately high costs on small businesses.
  • Requires that annual and final commission recommendations on regulations be presented to Congress for approval by joint resolutions of Congress. If Congress votes to approve the commission’s recommendations, “sunsetting” of the regulations must take place.
  • Requires agencies to recommend to Congress statutory changes should a statute bind agencies to enforce rules they otherwise would sunset or repeal.

Comments

Hultgren Goes After Obsolete Regulations — 4 Comments

  1. Bureaucracy creates more bureaucracy, it needs a complete overhaul.

    In Illinois just look at 1,400 pages of Illinois Pension Code.

    Out of control.

    The amount of legal mumbo jumbo one has to wade through at both State and Federal levels is ridiculous.

    Sort of like a lawn over run with dandelions, you pick the dandelion, it comes back.

    A new method is needed to control the regulation, a concerted effort is needed to reduce all the pages of laws and regulations and policies and procedures, there’s too much, it takes too much time to read and research and sometimes you can’t interpret the stuff or follow it without a lawyer.

  2. Part of the problem is many legislators are lawyers.

    When laws are created, little thought is put into making them easy for the common person to understand, or to write them in a clear, unambiguous fashion.

    The end result is America is less competitive compared to overseas in that many countries have less government required paperwork and pages of laws which are required to be understood.

    Understanding all these laws takes money that could be going to salaries and benefits of people producing the goods or services, and reroutes the money to those interpreting and following the overly cumbersome laws.

    Just for kicks pick a law or regulation and start reading it.

    Since pensions are the biggest problem in Illinois, read the Illinois Pension Code.

    Then one better understands what people are complaining about when they talk about overly burdensome regulation.

    Many of them want fewer and simpler laws that are easier to understand with less paperwork, not simply pollute the environment or somehow harm the common man in the name of big profits.

  3. Excellent — time to get rid of those “horses must be tied to hitching posts” statutes.

  4. It is great to have “rule of law,” as a matter of principle.

    In reality it is not rule of law, it is rule of lawyers.

    That is because the rules in the books are so long, so convoluted that they get in the way of common sense.

    I am convinced that the long and incomprehensible rule books are the cause of dysfunction in American government.

    If you are the head of a federal agency, how much power do you really have to accomplish your mission? Not much it turns out.

    Federal agencies are embedded in legal gunk and every decision has to be approved by a million lawyers in a million places, all with an effective right to veto every decision.

    When schools get rid of playgrounds for fear of lawsuits, you know things have gone too far.

    “Spring cleaning” would be nice.

    But short of that, perhaps our representatives will consider just going home and not writing any laws for a couple of years.

    I would be all in favor of them getting paid full salaries just to not pass any more laws for a while. It would be an improvement over the status quo.

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